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The Miami-Dade County will resume the program of fines for passing school buses with detection cameras this Monday, which was suspended a year ago due to serious errors identified in the citations sent to drivers who, in some cases, had followed the law.
The relaunch was announced on Friday by county officials and the company BusPatrol, which operates the system, reported the television station Telemundo.
The program will begin on May 4, with a 14-day warning period during which no economic penalties will be imposed; fines of $225 will take effect starting May 18.
The county sheriff, Rosie Cordero-Stutz, had suspended the program in April 2025 due to what she deemed "unacceptable errors."
Among the detected shortcomings, the citations indicated an amount of 225 dollars when the correct amount was 344, which resulted in an outstanding balance that triggered automatic suspensions of driver's licenses.
A judge in Miami-Dade dismissed 5,400 violations from the previous program, and all pending fines were dropped as part of the relaunch.
In October 2025, Miami evaluated the reactivation of the controversial fines program with virtual hearings to address nearly 8,600 pending appeals.
Months earlier, in March of that year, Miami-Dade had already partially suspended fines related to violations at traffic separators.
For the relaunch, the authorities emphasize substantial improvements over the original program. Steve Randazzo from BusPatrol explained that "only the video of potential violations that meet the criteria set by the sheriff's office will be sent and evaluated independently... there will also be an appeals system. All citation complaints will have the opportunity to be heard during a hearing."
The technological system has also been updated. Randazzo described that it is "connected to a main camera operated with artificial intelligence, is 30% more accurate than a person, and can detect reckless drivers across eight traffic lanes."
Around 900 buses in the district are already equipped with a system consisting of four interior cameras and five exterior ones. Information about the license plates of vehicles that do not stop is recorded at the moment the bus activates its turn signals and stop sign.
Drivers who receive a fine will have 60 days to decide whether to pay it or go to court. A public assistance hotline has also been set up.
According to data cited by officials, Florida records an average of over 8,000 daily violations by drivers passing stopped school buses.
Nationally, it is estimated that 40 million drivers in the United States commit this infraction every year, putting children at risk while boarding the bus or stepping onto the street.
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